The brief essay that constitutes this chapter demonstrates a resurgence of work on the region that bodes well for the future. A new generation of scholars is replacing those who have for many years provided leadership in a variety of subfields. Several old hands have retired, some are still publishing con gusto (Denevan, Siemens, Horst, Preston), others we have lost forever (Parsons, Stanislawski, West, Eden) though through their works (Denevan 1989, 1999; Pederson 1998) and their students they remain with us. It perhaps needs to be said that this brief account of the Latin Americanist historiography of the last decade should not be viewed in isolation. Too often we are marginalized as mere “regionalists” in an age that surely lacks well-trained ones (National Research Council 1997). Our efforts, be they in historical, environmental, cultural, political, or socioeconomic also need to be seen as crucial components of each of these thematic subfields. The work of North American geographers in the different fields of physical geography is being conducted under the paradigmatic premiss that the environment is a physical milieu and the place of residence and activity for humans. From that perspective, global environmental change, climatic crises, and increased pressures on biotic resources by increasing populations have been among the concerns of the scholars and politicians who, in 1992, called the Global Conference on the Environment (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro. There, new agendas for the integrated study of humans and the biosphere were formulated. Investigations about past and present impacts of humans on natural environments have refocused on the ways in which socioeconomic circumstances preside over environmental change (Turner 1991). The explanatory avenues and paradigmatic tenets of the natural and social sciences are now closely integrated in the treatment of humans and their environments (Turner 1997a). Latin America, where demographic growth and urban sprawl are testing the resilience and the limits of natural environments, and resource exploitation is exerting critical pressure on finite resources, provides a showcase for this type of analysis.
Integrated watershed modeling and scenario analysis: A new paradigm for integrated study of physical geography?
